Tuesday, January 17, 2017

It's release week for one of my favorite author-bloggers. I've been waiting for this book to come out so I can download it and read it! Here's Kelly Hashway's latest cover. Scroll down to read all about her new book, available for download now.

Blurb:

When sixteen-year-old Ella Andrews’s best friend, Avery, goes missing, she’ll do anything to get him back—starting with punching the no-brain cop who couldn’t care less about the disappearance.Ella’s convinced Avery’s been kidnapped, and she tries everything to find him—even following a strange shadow to another world where the constellations are real-life figures in the sky. But three star groups have fallen and are destroying the world.The fallen constellations are not the only enemy. Melanie, the princess of Stellaris, is forcing Ella, Avery, and an army of other kids kidnapped from their world to fight the rogue constellations, even as the land is draining away their life. The longer they stay, the more they fade into substanceless shadows—a fate worse than death.Can Ella save Stellaris before there's nothing left of her and Avery?

Kelly Hashway grew up reading R.L. Stein’s Fear Street novels and writing stories of her own, so it was no surprise to her family when she majored in English and later obtained a masters degree in English Secondary Education from East Stroudsburg University. After teaching middle school language arts for seven years, Hashway went back to school and focused specifically on writing. She is now the author of three young adult series, one middle grade series, and several picture books. She also writes contemporary romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she isn’t writing, Hashway works as a freelance editor for small presses as well as for her own list of clients. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling, and volunteering with the PTO. Hashway currently resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter, and two pets.Hashway is represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Every Monday, I'm presenting a new mystery. Some have been solved...some remain unsolved to this day. Today's mystery was requested by author (and my mom) Valerie Capps. It's a very literary one, so book lovers will love it. It introduces a little-known mystery involving this book:

The Hound of the Baskervilles was released in 1901, after killing off Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem. The story was published as a serial in a publication called The Strand Magazine.

Unfortunately, Holmes had a little help coming up with the story--a fact he conveniently left out when he sold it. However, he did acknowledge he had that help in the acknowledgments as a footnote on the first page of Chapter One.

Doyle also paid his friend, Fletcher Robinson, £500, which was a lot of money for the time. Robinson died in 1907 but before his death, he published a series of short stories that listed him as a "joint author with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" in the Baskerville stories. Doyle did not deny the claim.

Later, Doyle claimed credit for the plot and every word of the narrative. However, Robinson's coachman, whose name was Harry Baskerville, said he personally witnessed Robinson writing entire sections of what became the novel.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In 2000, an author took the allegations to an all new level. Rodger Garrick-Steele spent 11 years investigating the plagiarism charges and said Doyle plagiarized Robinson's work, had an affair with his wife, and conspired with her to poison her husband (who died at 36).

A court said Garrick-Steele was "totally unreliable" and the claims were dropped. To this day, though, Robinson is given no credit for his help in writing The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Do you think £500 and an acknowledgment should have been enough?Thank you SO much to Jacqui Murray for featuring Piper Morgan on her blog!